The Cell Communication Lab

Group Leader: Dr Chris Tape

Research

The human body contains around 40 trillion cells made up from over 200 different cell types. This combination of different cells enables metazoan tissues to achieve complex phenotypes that no one cell type can achieve alone. For example, in the intestine, epithelial cells control nutrient uptake, whereas stromal fibroblasts support epithelial renewal, and tissue-resident leukocytes patrol against infection. No one cell type can perform all these jobs, but together they can collaborate to form a complex tissue epithelium with adaptive immunosurveillance. Such multicellular collaboration requires different cell types to communicate with one another.听

Just like healthy intestinal tissue, (CRC) tumours also contain epithelial, stromal, lymphoid, and myeloid cells. And like healthy tissues, CRC tumours use these different cells to achieve complex phenotypes. The difference with cancer is that these phenotypes (such as immune evasion and metastasis) can kill, rather than aid, the host organism. Unfortunately, we know very little about how the different cell types in cancer communicate with one another to drive tumours.听

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The studies how oncogenic mutations (e.g. loss of APC, oncogenic KRAS) communicate with stromal and immune cells to drive CRC. The lab uses custom (such as single-cell mass听cytometry and scRNA-Seq) to measure how oncogenic signals flow through organoid co-culture models of CRC tumours.听By understanding how mutations regulate all cell types within a tumour, we aim to uncover novel approaches to treat cancer.听

Selected Publications

M.R. Zapatero*, A. Tong*, J.W. Opzoomer, R. O鈥橲ullivan, F.C. Rodriguez, J. Sufi, P. Vlckova,听C. Nattress, X. Qin, J. Claus, D. Hochhauser, S. Krishnaswamy, C.J. Tape
Cell (2023) 186(25): 5606-19
X. Qin*, F.C. Rodriguez*, J. Sufi, P. Vlckova, J. Claus, C.J. Tape
Cell (2023) 186(25): 5554-68
J. Sufi*, X. Qin*, F.C. Rodriguez, Y.J. Bu, P. Vlckova, M.R. Zapatero, M. Nitz, C.J. Tape
Nature Protocols (2021) 16(10):听4897鈥�4918.
X. Qin, J. Sufi*, P. Vlckova*, P. Kyriakidou*, S.E. Acton, V.S.W. Li, M. Nitz, C.J. Tape
Nature Methods (2020)听17(3): 335-342.
C. J. Tape, S. Ling, M. Dimitriadi, K.M. McMahon, J.D. Worboys, H.S. Leong, I.C. Norrie, C.J. Miller, G. Poulogiannis, D.A. Lauffenburger, C. J酶rgensen
Cell听(2016) 165(4):听910鈥�920听

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